Backstabbers
by QuietInsomniac
Summary: All shinobi have hidden depths. They have to, if they want to live. But not all hidden depths are good-in fact, more than a few, are potholes.
1. Consequences

_Don't get caught_, you said.

_Sorry_, I think dimly. _Too late for warnings._

**_Always too late._**

It didn't take much, a strange sound [suspiciously like a scream], a thud of running feet, a look (go!) a trap [-dead, his corpse falling off the trees as his neck separated cleanly from his shoulders with a meaty sounding _shhluck_] a hand, a flicker of fingers, a jutsu, darkness.

_Waiting is the worst part_, you said.

To you, maybe, but not to me. You were the only masochist on the team.

**Pain doesn't have to be physical.**

_You, bent double, gasping in shock as a bloodied blade withdraws from your stomach_-**your fault**, He says.

No, not my fault.

**Really? He **_**didn't**_** die taking that blow for you?**

Died doing his duty. Defiant. Staring at him with ruined eyes and a grin on cracked and bloody lips.

**Lies**.

[screaming, broken bodies and empty eyes. Dead.]

Who's screaming? Penetrating, the haze of drugs and fear and pain--me.

[Dark shadows, flickering across the wall as snakes coiledwitheredhissed around his armslegstorsoneck. Fangs sinking into vulnerable skin, breaking the flesh, leaving oozing wounds, dripping dark redblack blood. Howling mad as deadly venom slips into veins, tainted blood carried by wildly beating heart.] **Pitiful. **

Spits up blood, pants harshly. Bastard.

A dark, smooth, menacing chuckle.

**It's my job, boy. And I'm good at it. **

**Pain doesn't have to be physical. But sometimes it is.**

Chains creaking, clanking and slithering across the ground. Footsteps, and a beaten body painfully curls into a tighter ball. The door opens, shedding a dim rectangle of light on the emaciated, broken shell. Swollen eyes crack hesitantly, only to slam shut a moment later-light, as dim as it is, is as painful as the _acid that dripped onto raw nerves-_**heal him**.

An order. A stifled whimper –_nonononononono not again, he can't __**take it **all over__again_- as a soothing green presence starts seeping into bonetissueorgans, closing cuts and rips, shrinking bruises, healing.

**Ready for another round?**

_Don't get caught_, you said.

Flame hisses as metal is heated to white-hot pain.

**Last chance, boy. Tell us what we want to know.**

Gasping for breath [like a drowning man, who flailed wildly as his head was shoved under] and glaring defiance, eyes long gone and furrows gouged in the face, redblack blood dried and flaking.

Rust on an old, forgotten tool.

**No hard feelings boy. Just doing my job.** Almost regretful, a faint undercurrent of admiration in the dark river of thoughts that he can pick out.

You're loosing your touch- you start, rasping out painfully what were probably your last words, unable to resist the temptation to needle him. His voice blanks out, returning to cold, menacing, unfeeling-_bastard_- safe.

Iron shoved against scarred flesh. A scream, ripped out of almost-shredded vocal chords that goes on and on and _onandonandonandon_ as he writhes like a worm caught on a hook.

A glint of metal in the light of the forge, barely noticeable and blood is pouring like thick red tears.

_Sorry_, I think, dimly.

**Because some warnings come too late.**

-----

Author's Note:

This is the hinted at collection of one-shots thing, that will be updated very sporadically. The entire idea behind this is to give background stories to my characters in the Traitorous universe. Some will be completely made up. Others will be inspired by somebody else's work.

This one? Is just some random dude being tortured. The next one is Iruka. I have: Iruka, Sandaime, Izumo, Kotetsu and part of Genma written. I take requests!

As always, reviews are welcome, I listen to my reviewers, and I try my best to get back to them. I would actually, really like feedback for this. If you spot anything-an inconsistency [and I KNOW that the person changes from me to he to you, that was on purpose] or something else, I'd love to get your review.

Cheers!

Quietinsomniac


	2. Fine Print

Being the Hokage isn't all fun and games. It isn't having glory-even though you get that in bucketfuls by default.

Being a Kage means sending your shinobi out, day after day, knowing the odds of them coming back alive. Being a Kage means that everyone looks up to you, trusts you, places their lives in your hands. _Expects you to save them all_

Being a Kage means that you have to be able to steel yourself and _not_ _get attached too badly_.

Sometimes, Sarutobi feels his age. [When there's a _new_ generation of genin and he visits the Academy and they all look up at him-the leader of the _Village_- with those big, gleaming eyes that are full of excitement and eagerness and **hope** and he talks about serving the Village and duty and pride and the Great Tree of Konoha and ending with a 'Good Luck, shinobi'].

They eat it up, every time.

He hates himself then. Hates himself and Konoha and all shinobi and the _world_ for one, brief, furious moment. Then he slumps, exhausted, worn down, weary. And he feels all of his 68 years and all his kills and all the deaths on his hands.

Being a Kage means that every time that someone dies, it's _your_ fault.

Being a Kage means being able to detach yourself from the situation and see a subordinate's skills measured against their value, measured against the money that could be made from the mission, measured against the potential political retribution, _without_ imagining the face in death, eyes gazing sightlessly at nothing, staring through a dull sheen of _death_ until they're burned like all shinobi. _Without _seeing their life [] wither and droop and [occasionally] die.

Sometimes, Sarutobi understand why Orochimaru left.

He always stops thinking that as soon as he catches himself pondering his wayward student [_traitormenacebatshitcrazy**monster**_] and **sympathizing**.

Because even if the Snake Sannin did _horriblehorrible_ things, his original reason [hidden by seals and traps and layers upon layers of steel and wire and traps and seals] was good. [At least, until he was _warpedtwistedmutated_ my a filed trial and his goal was buried under insanity].

Because Orochimaru had been privy to the _real_ work of the Hokage and what it meant to be the leader of a Main Village.

Sometimes, Sarutobi wishes that _he_ could have been brave enough [wonders what would have happened if he had been _scared_ enough] to betray his Village and kill and torture, just to avoid being promoted.

And Sarutobi admires Naruto, he really does. Because Naruto has endured _horriblehorrible_ thins and stays strong through all of them. But every shinobi has, and Naruto hasn't even scratched the surface of what most shinobi have been through.

Neglected he may have been, but being ignored and not having friends was what most shinobi would pick over living through the War again. Sarutobi sometimes wonders if Naruto knows just how _lucky_ he really is, to be living in Konoha at a time of relative peace and prosperity.

But Naruto has no idea of any of this.

And Naruto will _never_ become Hokage. He's just _too nice_, sympathetic. He's never understood the 25th rule- the one that the Hokage's position exemplifies, takes to extremes.

Naruto is a bleeding heart. And no matter how much Naruto deserves the position [he doesn't, really. Sarutobi tells himself, trying to convince himself of something that both his heart and head agree on], he will _never_ get it.

Sarutobi preaches peace. But he knows that it is an impossible dream. Because he lives as a shinobi, has lived by the kunai and will likely die by the kunai [or poison, but that's just technicalities]. And Shinobi are Killers.

And Naruto is Not.

Sometimes, Sarutobi earns his name. But the God of Shinobi is the God of Shinobi.

And Naruto is just a kid with a fruitless, impossible dream.

Being a Kage means that everyone is a target, and you're the one that's to blame.

-----

Author's Note:

Dedicated to Maerchen Freunde, a loyal follower and a *reliable* reviewer! XP

Right, well, this is a sort of gift-fic for Maerchen [does that *mean* anything, by the way?], because 1) S/he [I don't know. . ] and I were 'talking' and Maerchen inspired me to update faster! *sniff*

And 2) Because I already wrote this and it was just *banging* around in my skull, refusing to let me work on Traitorous until I typed it out.

Well. . .this started out with the real deal Hokage duties, and then Naruto hijacked it. TT_TT

Oh, I have a spoiler up for Traitorous on my blog. . .

Annnd, I think that that's it.

Oh, right!

1: Like in Traitorous, I am issuing a BLANKET DISCLAIMER! That means that this ENTIRE fic/collection of one-shots [well, actually the images of the characters and to a degree, the culture and habits and geography of their world] do NOT BELONG TO ME!

2: As always, reviews are welcome [**], I might respond, I listen to muy reviewers and I'm inclined to update faster!

Ja!

QuietInsomniac


	3. Delicate and Deadly

You can make seals for everything.

Blowing shit up-a thick, bold, dark curl and a longer, thinner strike and done. Surveillance tags, a bit more complicated, a bit more delicate. Slender swirls bleeding black onto the cream of the paper, surrounded by a spiked circle and carefully inked kanji. Mind-control, pressure tags, summoning scrolls, traps, shock, hot, cold, wards, alerts- thick dark lines and miniature kanji and circles and delicate, spiderwebbing cracks surrounding the sturdy-but-fragile slips of paper.

You can make seals for anything.

But sealing is a very _delicate _and _precise_ art, one that won't take mistakes for an answer. Oh no, sealing is all rock-steady fingers and fine-tuned control with _exacting_ degrees of pressure and shades and all under the _deadly_ penalty of death.

There are countless graves in all shinobi villages that bear the names of a young or old shinobi, veteran or genin, who had been taken out, not by enemy shinobi, but by little scraps of weathered paper and a few strokes of a brush. There are thousands of unmarked graves and hundreds of pots of ashes, and even more craters where no body was ever found.

Kamizuki Izumo loves it.

Sealing is _his_ special thing, just lie trapping is Kotetsu's. He's collected books upon books upon scrolls upon scrolls of sealing. He's memorized them all.

The Sandaime didn't know about his hobby [lifespecialthingobsession] until a message from the Cipher unit asked for someone with mid-to-high sealing abilities. When the scroll was taken from the mission office, everyone assumed that Gai's girl, what was her name- Tintin, Tonton, something like that-had taken it.

And then Izumo showed up.

Obviously, the Cipher team thought that the girl had taken it as well, because when the door opened, without looking up, one of the cryptologists called 'Tenten' over. Silence spread over the room until the man looked up and flushed.

Izumo took it all in good grace, and he got to business immediately. The codebreakers and the mission-desk chunin compared results and batted theories around and argued heatedly about this symbol or that placement.

But it was Izumo who had looked at the notes and talked t over to himself and eventually grafted a seal onto a giant scroll in special chakra seeped ink with his blood mixed in with a personal sealer's brush. And it was _Izumo's_ seal that had worked.

A cold seal with no preparation and a sealer with no formal training and while they were good, still limited chakra reserves. Everyone was impressed. Everyone had looked at the chunin with new eyes.

Izumo had blushed and stammered and said that it was _no big deal, really_ and beat a hasty retreat as soon as he could.

Sandaime had classified Izumo's skills as an AA-ranked ability. Only people on a need-to-know basis were allowed to find out about the quiet sealer.

Later, Sarutobi had questioned Izumo more extensively on his seals. _Who, what, when, where, why…_

When the chunin told him that he had first studied seals in Iwa, during the War [which he was in for all of two months before it ended], he was nearly arrested on the spot.

And then he kept on talking, saying that he had found a bunker full of Iwa's explosive seals, all dormant. A couple of jounin confirmed his story, and Sarutobi himself remembered the incident [it had earned the chunin a commendation] and the paperwork that was probably somewhere in the Archives.

The sealer said that he had been mildly interested in why their seals had been different from Konoha's. [Turns out that they were hardier, had more of a _boom_ than a _bang_, had more of a shockwave that drilled _down_ than a small sparkwave that spread _out_, which the ANBU and Intelligence were happy to know].

And it had all spiraled out from there.

Izumo said he could do control seals, modified storage-summoning seals, leeching tags, three high level imprisoning seals and one, ancient slavery seal. He had never used it. Ever. Except maybe _once_ and even then it was on the Fire Lady's cat, and he had only made it scratch itself and then roll over to see whether it had actually _worked_. Honest!

The list went on for another good dozen seals.

Sandaime started sending the odd requisition form to the chunin. There was no reply for a month.

But then Kotetsu started showing up around the village looking worried and asking about medicine and _alone_ [which was the most alarming factor, really], and Izumo disappeared for a day after holing up in his shared apartment for a week.

Just as the higher-ups started to panic at possibly loosing a sealer [very valuable they are, very valuable], there came a host of civilian carts that unloaded a box or two and drove off. There was a good seventy-five boxes in front of the Hokage Tower before the last of the carts were done.

All of the crates, when pried open, held paper. Scrolls and slips of paper, carefully labeled in smaller boxes and all in Izumo's steady, exacting hand.

Izumo himself was discovered sleeping in his shared apartment, shadows under his eyes and drained of most of his chakra. His hands were stained with ink and bloody fingertips trailed the floor.

Sealing is a harsh, delicate, _deadly _art, with which you can make _anything_.

Sandaime stopped sending forms.

----

Author's Note:

OK, I know I know, I should be updating Traitorous. . . but I typed this up _late_ last night and I wanted to post something for the people who read my stuff. *coughcoughMaerchencouchcough*

I have a question: Do I use Italics too much? I won't be offended whatever you write, I just realized that I use them a lot and wanted to know what you lot thought.

As always, reviews are welcome, constructive criticism is responded too and I try to get back to all of my reviewers.

Ja!

QuietInsomniac


	4. Trigger Happy

Traps, on the other hand, are Kotetsu's specialty. He was born into a smithy's family, he teethed on triggers and spent his childhood vaulting around the scrapyard.

When Kotetsu found out about shinobi who had traps as their specialty, he never looked back [It's more subtle than just straight-out weapons, Izu-chan. JHe had explained. Weapons are the closest that I'll be able to get to a smithy as a shinobi, but I don't wanna be a weapon's master-do you _know_ how high the death rate for those people are?!].

It's a much less precise art than seals, but it's perfect for Kotetsu's quick fingers and tricky mind and raw power. More durable, just as malleable, and almost as varied.

Most trappers die before they turn fifteen. They lack speed and imagination and the ability to utilize their surroundings. Kotetsu wears weights like some of those taijutsu freaks. When they're off, he can go Maito Gai speeds. When Gai's desperate and opening the gates on soldier pill speed.

Yeah, really.

What, you don't believe me?

The imagination part of trapping Kotetsu has down to a fine art. He's hung out around Umino Iruka since the kid had shown up in Konoha, wet and shivering and reminding him of a wet kitten. And man, but that kid has _style_.

And as for being able to utilize his surroundings-that's what kept Kotetsu alive long enough to get promoted to chunin. How else would he've been able to set up that rigged hallway that blew up at least thirty shinobi? It was hidden well enough [using shit and dust as glue-he'd sworn that he would _never_ use _that_ particular mix again] to trick senior chunin in their own territory. Kotetsu's team was safely away [like, three whole miles away] when roughly fifty yards of stone cliff blew up in a _massive_ explosion of _hot air_ and _dust_ and _wind_ and _shrapnel_ and _noise_.

That was some of his best work yet. Kotetsu still looks back on that incident with fondness for his own ingeniousness.

-----

Kotetsu takes on students every now and again.

Yes, he _actually_ does.

Izumo? No, Sandaime doesn't really bother him with students. Only Kotetsu has that honor.

Kids, who the Sandaime told him 'had potential'. So he would try them out, see if they were up to scratch on his measuring stick.

They never are.

They're always kids who can do a fancy trick or two with wire, but have no real _appreciation_ for the art.

...

They tie shitty knots, too.

What? Knots are important in Kotetsu's line of work, if the brats can't even tie a decent slipknot, how's he supposed to trust them with flammable items?

Stop looking at him like that, it'sa _serious_ business he's in!

-----

Of course, traps are dangerous. They can make stuff go _boom_ too, just like seals can. Sometimes their _boom_ can go bigger than a sealed one-which Kotetsu is _very_ proud of, and brings up in very fight that he and Izumohave over their respective specialties.

Traps need metal and string and wire and stuff that sometimes you just can't _afford_ to carry around with you. Seals, on the other hand, just need something that you can write on. Izumo tells him.

But seals are more likely to blow up in your face, with greater backlash if you do it wrong, and a greater chance of death than traps have. Kotetsu argues right back.

In the end, they laugh at each other and chuck a few weapons at the other's head, and maybe they buy themselves a brand-new sex toy, but more often than not they don't.

-----

Like Izumo, Kotetsu has scrolls upon scrolls on traps. In his vest, he keeps summons for wire and rope and chakra activated glue and so many other things that he's needed to ask Izumo to make some summon scrolls for him. He has an entire room in his shared house devoted to his traps.

When Kotetsu's not on a mission, working at the Tower, eating, sleeping, hanging out with Izumo or having sex with Izumo, he's in the Trap Room. Izumo knows not to go in there, just like Kotetsu knows not to mess with his inks and papers.

The two of them have reached a silent agreement: Y_ou _don't touch _my _stuff, _I_ won't touch _yours_. They know better anyways, their skills are _deadly_, no matter your relationship with their maker.

The two of them are a great pair: Genma and Raidou [before Genma vanished and Raidou broke and Kotetsu _looks _at Izumo and Izumo looks back at Kotetsu and they make a silent promise to _never_ let that happen to them], Izumo and Kotetsu.

-----

Making a trap is more of an art than you would think. That kid, what-was-his-name, Uzumaki, did good pranks, sure-but he didn't know what a *real* trap was.

See, not all traps are physical-and Kotetsu knows this. That's the only reason that he's alive today. During the War [where he learned most of his lessons, come to think of it] his unit experienced traps and seals and various weapons of all shapes and sizes-and more death than he ever thought that he could handle. And when Kotetsu was the only one who half stumbled half staggered out of this one trap that had stolen his teammate's lives, he told himsel grimply, vowed on the blood coating his hands and on the pain in his heart and on the dogtags and hiate-ate around his neck and in his pouch that he would _learn_ everything that there was about trapping. Everything, so that he would be able to stop the same thing from happening to Izumo.

Kotetsu knows how to trap people in genjutsu-traps; a little ball of gas and chakra that forms a genjutsu, and how to catch people unguarded.

It's what he does best.

-----

Kotetsu is also the person who trapped the Tunnels. He's trapped parts of the Hokage Tower and helps with the Archives. He's the best Trapper in the Village.

And he was ready to blow Konohagakure in all it's beauty and history and thousands of lives to kingdom come when the Hokage's forms came to his apartment and Izumo vanished.

When he came back home sick and worried and angry, and saw his loverbestfriendbrotherpartner out cold on their bed, bleeding and blackened fingers touching the floor and chakra dangerously low, Kotetsu seethed and his fingers twitched towards the detonators that he _always_ carried in his belt pouch and just as he was about to gather the chakra needed to activate them, Izumo cracked open one eye, and told him not to.

"Don't waste your life like this Ko'." He'd whispered, and Kotetsu dropped everything to rush to his partner.

The Sandaime never knew how close he had come to dying that day, Kotetsu liked to think.

The truth? Izumo told the Hokage that, no threat meant, but if he ever did that again, Kotetsu would probably [and he does have the ability] destroy Konoha.

You don't need to be a an S-class shinobi to be deadly.

-----

Author's Note:

...This one sort of got carried away from me. . .

Next one will either be Genma, Iruka, or Aoba. Review with your choice!

And as always, reviews are welcome, and I try to respond and fix any mistakes that I make. On another note, f you fix something on the document manager, does it transfer to the posted thing?

Please let me know if you know the answer to this! ^^

This chapter was a bit unrealistic, but I think it tied in nicely with Izumo's chapter.

~QuietInsomniac


	5. Soul Detector

No one has ever seen Aoba's eyes. At least, not anyone who's still alive.

Not since he'd staggered home one night, years ago, still a genin and with three sets of 'tags around his wrists.

In his Academy photos, Aoba has cheerful green eyes. When Aoba stumbled home [bruised and battered and bleeding and drained to the almost-brink-of-death] his headband was lying across his eyes.

The chunin on duty that night, wondered why the kid was walking around blind right before he ordered for medics to be brought.

_Code N4086_ he snapped, lunging to catch the boy as he tripped over a perfectly obvious rock and fell heavily. The chunin could already see how this was going to go.

It was clear that the boy and his team had been captured, the rest of them were probably dead, the boy was blinded-or wounded enough in visual capacity that it wasn't worth keeping them open-and he would have to be retired as a ninja.

The chunin fought down a wave of sorrow at the sill young face in front of him, and felt the small body for wounds, hearing the sounds of the approaching medics.

When Aoba came home from that mission, he was delivered to the hospital as soon as possible. Lying on a cold steel operating table, tubes down his throat and eyes sealed with ofuda, blood draining out of him drop by agonizing drop, was the closest to death that Aoba had ever been.

Later that 'closest to death' experience would be at the War, when he had been on some _maniac_'s team, and after that would be the mission that got him into ANBU, and then the mission that got him back to regular jounin. The invasion might count. Maybe.

Not the closest though, definitely not.

The doctors didn't like the looks of the thick, dark blood that kept seeping through the cloth bandages on Aoba's face. He never opened them, no matter what they tried.

Short of having a Yamanaka posses him, the doctors had done everything and anything that they could think of, up to, and including drugging and restraining him.

That had backfired spectacularly, until one day Aoba simply. . . opened his eyes.

Aoba's eyes weren't green anymore.

They were gray with amber slit pupils, ringed with electric blue and shot through with molten silver.

The nurse fainted when she saw them.

Aoba has the creepiest[prettiest] eyes in Konoha.

Sure, the Hyuuga have eyes the can stare right through your body, and look like they're blind until their eyes go all crazy on you [bulging out frantically], but Aoba can top that.

Sure, the Uchiha have shapeshifting eyes that came straight from demons [Sasuke's the only Uchiha that doesn't know this, and even he'll learn when he gets access to the scrolls of his clan] and that strain their brain until you die of chakra exhaustion and madness [delusions of grandeur and blood], but Aoba can top that.

His eyes were _hyper_sensitive to light at first, but that calmed down after the first two years. He still needs sunglasses though.

He can see in pitchblack darkness as well as he can see in bright light. That's without chakra.

With chakra, Aoba can see _everything_.

He can see the individual layers of fat and muscle and bone that held the human body together. He can see things happening miles away, things brought to him on the wind. He can see the tiniest twitches and flushes that betray thoughts on par with the best-trained Hyuuga.

And if he _tries_, really _tries_, Apba can see, sweating and squinting through eyes that have suddenly betrayed him and his mind, beseiging his world with brilliant hues of purpleblueredwhiterainbow, someone's soul.

This takes up most of his chakra, and lands him on bedrest for a couple of days, and even then that isn't to say that Aoba can _do_ anything to it.

He can't touch it or influence it in anyway. And yes, that means that Aoba can't rip someone's soul out, no, he can't 'purify' it, and yes, almost anything that you've ever read about someone's soul is utter bullshit.

Aoba's eyes are the ultimate lie detector.

He hates them.

Oh, he's exhilarated to have them, and he pities the rest of shinobi for not being able to see what he can see. . .but sometimes Aoba just wishes that he could _turn them off_, and have _normal_ eyes for once.

To _not_ have people stare and whisper, and think that he's blind. Even though he is.

Aoba can't see anymore-because of his eyes. He can't focus his gaze enough to see anything detailed, and his light sensitivity was severe to the point of debilitating. So he wears his shades, a classic 'blind man' ornament, to signal this 'weakness' and to get his laughs off of freaking out genin.

Aoba can see everything, and nothing at all. It's an odd thing to have, to be able to see the tinest flares and ripples of chakra, but not be able to see anything else.

_It's like, _he had once said, _having the Byakugan active all the time. But not draining chakra, and without the eye-vein popping thing._

And that was true.

All Aoba can see is chakra. Muscles and bones and fat have chakra. Everything has chakra.

-----

Aoba sometimes feels pity for Tobitake Tonbo. He was captured by the same people that Aoba escaped from, a few months later.

Now he wears bandages wrapped around the entire top half of his face, hiate-ate over his eyes.

Tonbo was a failed experiment-Aoba was a successful one.

Tonbo can't see anything. Period.

Aoba can't _see_ per say, but he has _brilliant_ vision, and can see things that _no one_ else can, and ever will.

-----

Author's Note:

I LIVE!!!!

Here you go, a nice semi-long chapter about Yamashiro Aoba. What do you think?

Did the description work?

As always, feedback is much appreciated. You know, I think I should come up with another phrase. Any suggestions?

QuietInsomniac


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